Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Cuzco

The nicest bus we have taken on this trip so far was the bus we took (kinda) direct from Copacabana to Cuzco. It was new and had nice seats and we got the top front in front of the staircase which meant no one behind us! There are many buses going from Copacabana to Cuzco but most you have to change in Puno, Peru's city next to lake Titicaca. In Puno one can visit the famous floating islands made out of reeds. We decided to skip it since we saw the lake on the Bolivian side and we heard that Puno was not a nice place to stay and that the floating islands were waaay touristy. Although some people really liked it I just don't think we would have enjoyed it. Anyway, buses. So we were lucky to get one of the not many buses that didn't change in Puno but we still had to get out in the Puno station, sign into the bus company and get a new set of tickets, and pay the stupid terminal leaving tax (btw, props to Argentina and Paraguay for not making you pay to leave. It sucks when you're running late and you cant' get out the door to your bus until you go find the booth and pay and get the ticket so that you can leave.)
So far we hadn't had a good introduction to Peru. It was easy enough to enter, we just got off the bus at the Bolivian border, got the exit stamp and walked across a bridge and waited in line to get the entry stamp to Peru. Unfortunately the bus driver never gave us the sheet we needed to fill out so we waited in line, got to the window, got yelled at by the stamper guy who gave us the sheet, filled it out and then had to get back in line! Then we get to the bus terminal in Puno and the people there were really rude! I had dropped coins out of my pocket on the bus and didn't realize till I got into the station and when I tried to go back to the bus the lady wouldn't let me without a ticket. I said I didn't have it they took it at the counter when we were re-checking in. She said no. I went back to the counter where the woman was looking for me to give me the new ticket, went back to the lady who told me now I couldn't leave without paying the tax. I said I just need to look on the bus to find my money! So she took my tickets as ransom as I went to look for the money which wasn't even there (turns out it somehow fell into my backpack pocket and I didn't find it till 2 days later!). Then I was walking to Nick and accidentally bumped into this guy and when I said sorry he just glared and walked away. Then that same guy tried cutting Nick when he was in line to pay the exit tax but Nick wouldn't have it. He gave him the finger wag and said 'back of the queue!' which he prob didn't understand but he went. You need to stick up for yourself in these countries or they WILL cut. Then, when Nick was at the window paying, a woman came up and put money down right next to Nick!!! Unbelievable! Fortunately the woman at the window didn't attend to her like they normally do with cutters, she told her to respect the line!! Victory! Onward with the journey!

So we get into the Cuzco bus terminal at 4 am. We had booked the hostel the day before but didn't know if it was too early to go there so we sat in the terminal till 6am. Soo boring! Then finally I couldn't handle it anymore so we took a cab to the hostel. Turns out we could have gone there earlier, they had a couch and a tv for waiting on till check in at 10:30. Unfortunately for us we never saw the check in because at 9:30 I was told that the room we would have is still occupied and the people who said they were going to leave now weren't and that we would have to go to another hostel. Nick got really mad at this since we were told we would have space and the other ppl should leave, the guy just said that the person was sick. He got us a cab and we went to a sister hostel. At first it looked really crappy but our room was big with three beds and a bathroom and we managed to get it for $10 a person per night where the other one was $11.50 pp pn.

Once we were settled and rested after our journey things started to get better. We walked around the city and ate a really good meal then got cake in the market. Cuzco used to be the Incan capitol until the Spanish saw to the end of that, but there are still some Incan structures left like walls and ruins. It also has some really pretty churches and plazas, a nice place to walk around...except that you get pestered on every street to buy something. We find ourselves saying 'no, gracias' every time we turn the corner!

The next day we looked around for a tour company to book our trip to Machu Picchu and took a free walking tour of the city conveniently called Free Walking Tour. It was a really good tour and we saw some of the Incan walls and ruins that were unearthed when the Marriot hotel started to build on this one spot. They had to stop building and find somewhere else and the ruins you can visit which we did. Inside there were 2 vicunas and an alpaca roaming around that you can pet although they're not the happiest! One of them kept going after this girl in our group we think because she had on a brown tourist llama sweater hehe. But she would not leave her alone, kept biting her!
We also tried a Peruvian dish called La Causa which was made for the soldiers when they were going off to fight for the country. It was really good and tasted like potato salad.
We had lunch at a Spanish tapas restaurant and learned that the statue in the main square is actually plastic but painted to look like copper. We ended at a really awesome hotel/art gallery that Mick Jagger stayed at recently, with some really cool modern art and the coolest bathrooms ever! One bathroom's theme was hell and it was black and red with roses and vines and the other was heaven and it had mirrors on the wall that were all smashed. The tables in the restaurant part were old bathtubs turned into fishtanks with glass over the top.
We spent the rest of the afternoon looking at tattoo designs and re-arranging our bags to start our trip to Machu Picchu the next day!





around cuzco

Plaza de Armas


Free walking tour group in front of plastic statue

Alpaca face


La Causa. Layers of mashed potato, some hard boiled egg and other goodness

Incan wall. they used no mortar they just cut angles in the stones so they fit together. Smaller stones on the bottom and they're built on an angle to make them earthquake proof. 

Vicuna getting ready to spit at Nick
Hotel/art gallery


'heaven' bathroom

'hell' bathroom

fishtub table

Copacabana and camping on Isla del Sol

After leaving La Senda Verde on the Gravity bus we ended up staying with our friend Mark, a Gravity tour guide, in the Gravity apartment. We were only going to stay 2 nights but we ended up staying 5! It was nice to relax after working everyday for over 2 weeks and get to know La Paz better, not just the touristy part. The scenery around La Paz is so interesting with crazy shaped mountains it's a very different feel from other countries capitols! I had to go to visit a doctor one of those days which was in this chuchi (posh) part of town that had some amazing hillsides around it, they were eroded and just really funky lookin!
Anyway, we finally tore ourselves away from La Paz and headed to Copacabana to see Lake Titicaca (this reminds me of 8th grade Ms. Marsh's class when we learned about geography...teachers all over must hate when they have to teach kids the name of this lake...*snicker*). On the way we had to get off the bus so that it could board a barge and ford the river while we took a ferry and waited on the other side. It's funny to see a bus floating on a wooden platform! Once in Copa we did our usual find a cheap hostel while carrying heavy bags tour. We ended up staying in one up a hill called Utama that looked nice and we were able to negotiate the price down from 150 Bolivianos for the room with breakfast to 80 b's for the room with no breakfast. Unfortunately we could only stay one night but it turned out to be a good thing since their pillows (actually one long pillow) was so uncomfortable I had to use my camping pillow and the shower suuucked! The water stream went everywhere but on me! The next day we hiked up a nearby hill which had the seven stations of the cross on the way up and shrines and stuff. What we didn't know was that we hiked up the back way which was a little harder and walked back down the main way. On the way up there was sooo much trash thrown over the hill, really ugly and unfortunate. You'd think on a hill where people go up as a pilgrimage to ask for blessings and good luck they'd keep it a bit nicer!
We also did a 30 min swan boat ride on the lake. Lake Titicaca is huuuge and a really pretty color blue. We keep reading that it's the highest navigable lake and it's true because we navigated around it in a swan boat. There are many islands on it and the next day we planned to do a 2 night camping trip on Isla del Sol, where there are no vehicles or paved roads, about 3,500 people live there, they use donkeys to transport things, there are some Incan ruins and also is the site where the Incan's believe the sun god was born from a rock.
We switched hostels to Hostel Leyenda right on the lake front with a room with a balcony and good shower. That night we re-arranged our bags so that we were taking a big one with the camping stuff and a small one with the food stuff. Next day we bought our boat tickets to the island from our hostel because it was actaully cheaper than buying it at the lake front. We would leave at 1:30pm so we had time to kill which was baisically us looking for a place to eat lunch. Finally we boarded the bus and headed for the south side of the island.

Isla del Sol

I searched and searched for information about camping on Isla del Sol, I knew it was possible because I saw pictures but I could not find a blog of someone who did it. When I got there I found out why, because I only saw Argentinians camping and I wasn't looking at Argentinian blogs! So I will put down some info about camping.
Ok, you can take a boat to the north side or the south side of the island and either hike across the island (about three, three and a half hours) to the other side. It can be done in a day trip but it's a bit rushed which is why we decided to stay over. On this island they charge you for anything they can since they mostly make their money from tourism. Once you arrive you are charged 5 bolivianos to get off the dock onto the island, you are charged for the bathroom (of course), you're hassled by kids to buy necklaces or kids asking you if you have a hostel yet or you'll get told to go on a 'free' tour that at the end you're required to tip 10 b's...you're even charged to walk across from one end to the other (there's a toll in the middle of the island for 15 b's). So I'm absolutely floored that you are able to set up a tent and camp on the beach by the river FOR FREE!! Amazing. The only campsite we actually found was on the north side even though the map says there are more. Water and snacks are sold in many places so it's not necessary to take many bottles.
So we started our journey in the south, got off the boat and paid the fee, avoided the 'free' tours and kids hustling necklaces. We didn't really know what to do actually when we got off the boat..we knew there were some ruins on the south side but we had to get to the north to set up camp since when we arrived it was 3pm and the sun set around 7:30 and we still had to hike across the island, plus there were just way to many people bothering us. We headed toward the first thing we saw that looked like it was going north, they happened to be a steep set of old Incan stairs which were horrible to climb up at high altitude. On the way up a boy asked if we had a hostel. I barely could breath but I managed to say 'si, tenemos', but that wasn't enough for him he needed to know which one so I told him 'hostel carpa', tent hostel. He was like that's not a hostel! Mentirosa! (liar) but then he noticed the tent strapped to nick's bag and I was deemed not a liar and he finally left me alone. This exchange happened for most of the hike up the stairs and I was way out of breath so a break was needed. Then we just followed a path and asked people along the way if we were heading 'Norte'. We ended up behind this old man and his donkeys, he asked us where we were going and we said North. He was really nice and told us that the path splits in 2 and one way is longer and more up and down and the other way is faster. He pointed the way to go and gave us some directions and sent us on our way, he was really nice. We wound our way through a path that led between adobe houses with lush grass and pigs in the yard, no one was out and it was nice and quiet. I had a feeling that this wasn't the normal walking route. Soon we realized I was right when, after walking through what seemed like someone's field, we got on a more main looking path and passed some girls walking back to the south end. Turned out we totally missed the toll since we weren't on the main tourist path! but we still had 2 hours to go.
At first we thought we would walk to the north, camp for a night and hike back to the south and camp another night. After the walk though we quickly vetoed that idea and decided to do two nights on the north and take the boat back from there. Hiking with heavy packs at high altitude is not fun! The views, though, were amazing so def worth it. We finally arrived at the north side and, after asking about 5 people, were told to walk across town (of two streets) to the beach to camp. Huzzah! That night we dined on pasta that we'd carried around since Argentina. A stray beach puppy was happy to eat the leftovers and we listened to the waves of the lake as we laid in the tent not sleeping because it was uncomfy.
Next day we got up, had some oatmeal and headed to the ruins and sacred rock. We paid 10 b's each to go see them but we didn't get a guide so we were only vaguely sure of what we were looking at. One was the sacred rock that the sun god was born from, one was the rock with the form of a puma of which the lake gets it's name, titi being Puma in Aymara and caca being kala which is rock. There was a sacrificial stone as well but our fav part was the ruins called the labyrinth. It was so nice there and barely any people. We had a nice picnic of crackers and cheese and sat in the sun looking out on the lake. We probably stayed there for two hours then hiked up to a higher point next to the ruins and got an amazing view of the lake and the smaller islands around it. We went back to our campsite and had a late lunch of Ramen Noodles which made us not hungry for dinner. We had snickers for dinner instead and a sneaky bottle of wine we bought from one of the shops. That night I couldn't sleep (again) and at 5:30 in the morning I heard our tarp rustling ( we had laid it on the ground outside the tent to use as a sitting and cooking surface and placed rocks around it). I thought it was the stray dog sniffing around for food again so I didn't go check on it. In the morning though I learned that it had been stolen and what I had heard was the %"^$* running off with it! It wasn't my idea to keep it out unsupervised..
We decided to leave on the 8:30 am boat (we were going to take the 1:30pm) which got us into Copa at 11:45, went to the hostel where we stored our bags and repacked them on the tables outside. We were leaving for Peru at 6:30 that night so we had lots of time to kill. We had lunch, charged the computer and phone, bought snacks and shopped till it was time to board and, sadly, leave Bolivia.

Our bus getting onto the barge

Lake Titicaca

view from our second hostel, La Leyenda

Can you spot the garbage cascading down the cliff side?

Copacabana from above

top of the hill

swan boat!

On Isla del Sol. House made of Adobe brick

Walking to the north side

One of the paths

view from the tent. Tarp still intact

peaceful ruins

back in Copa, llamas hangin on the shore

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

La Senda Verde Animal Refuge

La Senda Verde is one of Bolivia's biggest privately owned animal refuges that takes in animals that were abused as pets, on the black market to be sold as pets or unwanted pets. There's a law in Bolivia that says you cannot re-release animals into the wild so when LSV gets these animals they are there to stay and they try to give them the best life they can. It's an amazing place and I'm so glad there are people out there like Vicky and Marcello the owners who dedicate their lives to taking care of all the animals. There are around 70 monkeys (capuchins, spider monkeys, howler monkeys, squirrel monkeys, nocturnal owl monkeys and a lion titi monkey) many birds mostly parrots, 2 toucans, 2 spectacle bears, 2 boas, a nocturnal kinkajou, a coati, a tayra which is like a big weasel that can climb trees so fast, a margay (nocturnal wildcat), many turtles and tortoises, some gunea fowl that just showed up on their own one day and never left and 8 million sand flies that bite you anywhere they can.

They get their money from tours that come in daily or guests that stay overnight but mostly they get it from volunteers, which Nick and I decided to be! We were debating between going here or the with Inta Wara Yassi the other animal refuge but decided that this one was a better price, closer, had food, hot water and electricity and was less known. We're very glad we chose this place as well since we got to work with a variety of animals and hang out with monkeys during our free time. When we arrived we were put on birds which is feeding and cleaning. Most of the birds are either free or let out of their cages during the day and put back in at night since some can't fly and would be easy prey. Once we got the hang of birds we were very efficient and were able to make suggestions about moving birds, make toys and change their diet (they were wasting so much food so we made adjustments). Some of the birds were so sweet but most were just grumpy and bitey in normal bird fashion. There are two who we dubbed the old ladies because they would 'talk' back and forth to each other like a pair of old ladies gossiping. They would also whistle together and yell HUEVO (egg). I'm pretty sure they were a mating pair though because if they were on the ground they would attack you if you went into their territory. The toucans had to be fed three times a day instead of lunch and dinner and they ate fruit and chicken. They were pretty scary to feed because they liked to bite and once they got a hold of something they would shake their head like a dog! The birds would get a variety of fruit and veg for breakfast and a bird 'cake' at night with seeds and pasta in it that nick became an expert at making.

Next we switched and nick was working on miscellaneous and I went to quarantine. Quarantine has a variety of animals that have just been rescued and need to be watched to make sure they're ok and not sick before taking them to the main part (it's down the road from lsv). There were some turtles and tortoises, many birds, four monkeys, a snake and the kinkajou who used to be a pet (he's so cute). That took a little more work because you're feeding a variety of animals and cleaning out horribly designed bird cages. Many of the birds are ready to be moved down to the main part but there is no space at the moment. Amazon parrots are the main birds because people want them as pets because they talk but people don't realize how noisy or messy or destructive they can be so they give them up. Many of them come in saying hola. There was one bird over there, a blue headed parrot, that was so sweet and I really liked and when one volunteer was cleaning her cage something fell and startled her and she flew away. That was sad :(

Miscellaneous is feeding and cleaning the turtles, feeding the dogs that live there and feeding the two bears.One bear is a 6 year old male named Aruma who was rescued from the black market as a cub. He's really chilled out and has a great enclosure surrounded by an electric fence. It's really amazing feeding a bear a few feet away with just an electric fence between you. These guys are the only bears in south America and are very endangered due to habitat loss. The other bear is a year old female cub named Tipnis who is very cute but way more hyper and unpredictable than Aruma. To feed Aruma one volunteer goes up a path next to his cage and throws peanuts to him in order to bring him away from his eating area. He loves peanuts and will sit down and pick them up with his mouth, place them on his arm and open the shell with his mouth. Meanwhile another volunteer or Vicky goes into the cage and cleans out his eating area, puts food in his bowl, and throws half a watermelon and papaya into the woods for him to search out later. With Tipnis it's a bit different because her cage is smaller for the time being and usually only Vicky or her son cleans out her cage and feeds her but the volunteer can feed her peanuts to distract her. She knows to climb up her tree and we give her the peanuts up there while the other person cleans. Sometimes she goes down the tree with the person still in there and they have to quickly get out. I don't think she would want to be aggressive or anything, probably she just wants to play but those claws are big!!

Last we got put on monkeys which is taking care of the capuchins. They are smart little guys and very sexist. Men can work with them with little to no problem but for women we have to be very careful with some and no one can go near the alpha male without the free roaming monkeys attacking. If I a monkey was on a guys shoulder that he really liked and I went near to him the monkey might scratch or try to bite me because he's protecting him. The main reason I couldn't go near some is because they were abused by women. One even had her eye poked out by her previous owner because she bit her so only guys can feed and clean her area. Many of the capuchins are tied up with tethers because they will either go after women, are danger to other monkeys or will run away. They can be very aggressive toward each other and while we were there one attacked another and bit parts of two of his fingers off! But they can also be very sweet. Some were just babies that wanted to cuddle and others just wanted attention and play. One that was in quarantine named Martin III was so shy he wouldlnt' look anyone in the eyes and would cover his head when you went near him, he may have been beaten previously, but he loved nick and was so playful and happy to see him. One time I was standing by him and he was looking at the ground and picking at spots on my pant legs when nick came to visit and he went nuts yelling and was so happy, it was really cute.
Monkey care was feeding them three times a day, changing water and cleaning their houses but we could also hang by the pool and gazebo and just chill with the spider and howler monkeys. It was such a great experience and we didnt' want to leave but we had to consider our budget unfortunately :(
hoping to go back one day!

Tipnis


Me and a newly arrived capuchin


walk from quarantine to lsv

Aruma eating a tangerine

owl monkey baby that we babysat for one night. He's nocturnal so sleep was not easy especially when he peed on your head

Lunch time!

Our house

Spider monkey juggling

cuddles

the old ladies

toucan feeding time. out of the 20 species of toucans this is the rarest

other toucan

scruffy the macaw that lived outside the restaurant. he loved to be scratched on the neck and under the wings

baby howler monkey named Canola. Loved nick. so cute

nap times

willi

Carnival in Oruro and La Paz

In Paraguay I saw dancers from Bolivia during the bicentenario parade and I thought they were awesome. I saw that the carnival in Oruro was going to have many folkloric dances like the one I saw in PY so I thought it would be fun to go see. We originally were going to take a tour which provided transport, seats, meals and tshirt but we thought we could do it cheaper ourselves and in the end we saved 20 Bolivianos which is like $3 but after hearing about Lauren and Marianna's time with a tour we're glad we did it ourselves.
We got up at 3am to get a 4am bus from La Paz to Oruro. It was freezing and we did not have the right clothes on, Nick had flip flops and I had flip flops with socks and our feet were freezing. Nick ended up buying socks once we arrived. It took us almost an hour to pick a seat. There were many stands and each section had a person selling seats for 200B (we didn't think it would be that much!) and after awhile we just picked one and sat down. The next 8 hours we barely moved from our seat because it wasn't easy to get off the stand and we bought food from the vendors who came by the stand. We had ponchos in case of waterguns and foam spray but it wasn't tooo bad where we were sitting.
The parade itself was good for the first 2 hours, and then everything kept repeating. They had amazing costumes (except for the ones using dead animals) but it was the same stuff over and over. Different dance troupes all doing the same folk dances but since we had paid so much for the seats we didn't want to leave too early. Finally at 6 we decided to make our way to the terminal, buy some street food and get on a bus back to La Paz. It was a long day and when we got back to our hotel room it was playing on the tv so we could watch it from the comfort of our room instead of a cold bleacher. I probably wouldn't do that again, once is enough. Maybe next time Rio!! Unfortunately we were advised not to take a camera so we have no pictures of the carnival..and we would have been fine if we took one anyway.

After Oruro we spent a week in La Paz not doing much except eating and walking around and buying stuff. We met up with Laruen and Marianna and went to Loki Hostel and Wild Rover for a night out. It was also still carnvial and we got into a watergun/foam fight with little kids on the street. I got soaked. We ate at The Star of India which apparently has the 'worlds most dangerous vindaloo' which if you eat all of it you get a tshirt. Nick attempted and was very successful and got the shirt. I tasted a bit and thought it was horrible and toooo hot for my untrained American mouth. We also bought stuff for ourselves for the first time because we could actually afford it in this country so now we have nice new jackets. We stayed at hostel Tipnis which unfortunately didn't have WIFI but was only 70 B's (about $10) for both of us for a private double with a tv! We also went to the movies to see Girl with the Dragon Tattoo but ended up going on a holiday day so we had to pay more. I think it would have been better if I hadn't read the book first!
La Paz is a very cold place and hilly and I was always out of breath because of the altitude. We had a hard time finding an eating place with wifi but internet cafes are cheap.It is a funky city to see from up high because the houses go right up the surrounding hills. We also sent stuff back home and I can't believe how quickly it made it!!

Good luck blessing for Adventure Brew Hostel that we accidentally took part in

'worlds most dangerous vindaloo'

random street party we saw when walking back to hostel

Pigeon foot

colorful store fronts

a street

Cochabamba and Toro Toro National Park

 Not much to say about Cochabamba. It's been awhile since I've had good, reliable internet access so I have many updates to do and when I think back to Cochabamba this is what I remember... had trouble finding a place to stay but finally stayed at Hostel Buenos Aires. It rained a lot. We ate at a 'Chinese' restaurant with a main dish called Jackie Chen Chicken (not chan..chen). Had really good pizza. Oh and had someone try to tell us he was the National Police. This guy in a taxi van pulled up next to us and said 'hello, national police' and flashed us a most definitely fake id, he obviously must have thought we were idiots like we would get into a taxi cab with some fat guy and his accomplice. We had also read that people try to do that, abduct you and get you to withdraw all your money from your ATM card and that the real national police would have a uniform on, the undercover ones do not interact with tourists. So I shook my head at the guy..might have even given him a finger wag... and walked away.
So all in all I would not go back to that place or really recommend it. Although we did have a nice old lady come up to us in the park and welcome us to Bolivia, and she didn't even beg for money! It was quite sweet.

From Cochabamba we got a tour to Toro Toro, the smallest national park in Bolivia but with a wide variety of things to see. It is also not very known or visited and as of now off the Gringo Trail. Toro Toro means mud in Quechua and it was very muddy, probably because it rained all the time..which makes sense because it is the rainy season. Joining us on our tour were two Bolivians from La Paz getting to know different parts of the country.
Things to see at Toro Toro:

Dinosaur tracks. So many dino tracks preserved in the mud! Many were eroding away though due to rain since they're just on the ground out in the open, but the guide assured me as the mud washed away more would turn up. hopefully.

Big cave. We went into a crazy cave that is the biggest in Toro Toro. The entrance was everything you would expect from a cave entrance with a rocky slope and river going into a dark hole. Unfortunately back in the 70s people went in and smashed pretty much all the stalactites and mites to bring home as requerdos which was pretty shitty of them because they take sooo long to form. I think we saw maybe 3 that weren't broken. We had to do a lot of rope climbing or sliding down, crawling on our bellies and rock scrambling. I was pretty sore the next day but it was so worth it.

Canyon. It was beautiful with a cool lookout

Rock Paintings. Don't know from who or what they mean but there are some paintings done by people many many years ago about something.

Rock Formations. There's a lot of water flowing around and it has eroded the rocks to form cool bridges and stuff.

Sea turtle graveyard. was apparently there but we couldn't see it because someone stole 4 of the turtle fossils and for each fossil stolen it was closed for a year. So it was closed for four years.

Marine Fossils. We hiked a long way up to see these guys in the high altitude air which made it extra hard. The fossils were tiny shells in the rocks and all over the ground. I wouldn't have done that hike again because it was hard and not worth the fossils it when you got there (although a great view). I took a small one and put it in my pocket but it was later stolen and eaten by a monkey at La Senda Verde.

Vehicles stuck in a river. There was a pickup truck and a big cattle truck stuck in the river that usually is crossable but there was a rainstorm causing it to rise. Many Bolivians were trying to get them out digging at the rocks under the tires or using planks of wood to lift the pickup. It was entertaining

The tour was three days two nights and we did it through Hotel El Molino. They provided transport, guides and food as well. We didn't have the best experience with them because the hotel was moated in by a river and far away from the centro so we were stuck there at night and they didn't have any beer or snacks to buy at the hotel. The TV only played DVDs but the sound on it was so crappy you couldn't understand anything. We were never even given an itinerary of what we were doing so we were always just waiting around not knowing what was happening. They tried to charge us more than they quoted and the driver who drove us back to Cochabamba was flyyyyyying down the scariest roads so close to the edge. It was the worst ride ever. At one point he drove so close to the edge trying to look at the road ahead or turn around or something we were about six inches from the front tires going over the edge and i was in the front! Horrible.

All in all toro toro was a beautiful place..hotel el molino is a not recommended way to see it.

Hotel El Molino living room

coolest plaza statue ever in Toro Toro.

dino track

going to the cave entrance

spelunking

chopped off stalactites

water eroding the rocks

dinool long neck. I like how you can see the mud pushed out

Canyon

sea fossils

exiting the cave

tight spaces

natural bridge formed by water eroding the rock

view from drive home